Relic (28 page)

Chapter Thirty-six

Yahn fired two more arrows as he rode up, but they landed intentionally to the side of either man. Warning shots. Another horse followed a ways behind him. I recognized that rider as well. Sheriff Leander.

Yahn came up in front of the roughnecks, and his horse reared on its hind legs with a furious and terrifying whinny. Yahn drew back his arrow with cool intensity.

“Let them go, or I put the next shots into your brains.”

Both men complied immediately. They ran off faster than I’d ever seen men run. Yahn jumped down from his horse, as did Sheriff Leander, going right to Adelaide’s crumpled body.

Yahn came toward me, and I ran to close in the distance. We came together in a fierce, colliding embrace. I pressed my face to him, squeezing my eyes shut with intense relief. No words needed to be spoken. The warmth of the Legacy coursed through both of us, and the moment couldn’t have felt more right.

I might have stayed there forever if awareness hadn’t shot through me. “Adelaide,” I said, my eyes snapping open.

Yahn and I both ran to her side. Sheriff Leander held her in his arms, patting her face gently, but she didn’t rouse. She still gazed up at unseen terrors. The only movement came from slight twitches and a general trembling.

“What’s wrong with her?” Sheriff Leander asked.

“Banshee relic,” I said, my voice tight.

He swore under his breath. Yahn’s brow lowered. “Such evil.”

I nodded grimly. “We need to get her treatment fast.”

Sheriff Leander passed Adelaide carefully into Yahn’s arms. “Take her to Moon John quick as you can. But be careful. This fire’s spread to Burning Mesa, and all hell’s broken loose over there.”

Only then did I process what an unexpected team they made, Yahn and the sheriff. “You’re not…trying to hang him anymore?” I asked the sheriff.

He shook his head. “We know Álvar Castilla is responsible. At least my rangers and I know it. Last night, I got a two
a.m
. visit from Emerson Bolger. Turns out he’s had his suspicions of Señor Castilla for some time. Well, for the past week, he’s been coaxing information out of Mr. Connelly at The Desert Rose, pretending that it was in regard to a mining operation. When Bolger finally offered Connelly a high-ranking position in his new company once he took over in Burning Mesa, Connelly betrayed Castilla, told Bolger everything. And Bolger promptly reported it all to me.”

I shook my head, dazed. “All this time, I thought he was responsible for the razings.”

Sheriff Leander nodded. “And he thought
you
were a spy for Castilla.”

“I guess that would explain why he was always such a bear to me.”

“Who can blame either of you? It’s hard to know whom to trust in times like these. I might have suspected Bolger myself if I hadn’t known him since we were kids. Anyway, once we knew the truth, I tried my best to stop the mob, but they were too worked up. The fool thing is, they’re all so fired up about the people burning towns down that now they’re about to do it themselves.”

“You can’t go into Burning Mesa,” I said to Yahn. “It’s not safe.”

“It’s more dangerous to stay here,” he said. “Your friend needs help at once.”

Sheriff Leander nodded and clapped a hand on Yahn’s shoulder. “Ride hard, son.”

“I will. Come, Maggie.”

I started to follow, but my feet slowed to a stop. Around me, the battle still raged. The fire still burned. And somewhere out there, Álvar Castilla still had my sister. I knew what I had to do, and it wasn’t riding off with Yahn.

I watched him as he carried Adelaide gently toward his horse, and my heart burst. There was so much I wanted to say. To do. Everything in me wanted to be near him. But I knew I couldn’t follow. Not without my sister.

“Hurry,” Yahn said, glancing over his shoulder at me.

It felt like two boulders crushing me on either side. I stepped forward and grabbed his hand tightly. “I can’t go,” I said, filling the charged silence.

“What do you mean?”

“Álvar has Ella. I can’t leave without her.”

Sheriff Leander came closer, frowning deeply. “We’ll find her, Maggie, I swear to you. We’ll find Castilla and bring him down.”

I shook my head, the pain compounding within me. “You can’t. He’ll kill Ella if you try to take him in. That’s why he brought her into battle—as a shield, can’t you see?”

Yahn’s face was dark. “You cannot reason with him. You know what he possesses.”

“I agree,” Sheriff Leander said. “He could burn you like a scrap of paper.”

I knew it was probably impossible to convince them, but I tried. “I know him. I’m sure I can find a way through to him.”

Sheriff Leander shook his head at my reasoning. “We don’t even know where Señor Castilla is. He’s probably well hidden. And well guarded.”

I knew where Álvar was. The moment I’d seen that huge column of fire, I knew. He was on the cliff where he’d taken me for dinner. I was about to tell Sheriff Leander this when, in a flash, I saw a way to keep him off my trail.

I tried to look thoughtful as I crafted the lie. “You know, when I was at the Hacienda, I heard them talk a lot about a cave hidden in the forest just beyond the grounds. A safe place, they called it.”

Sheriff Leander brightened. “Do you know exactly where it might be?”

“Not sure.”

He nodded. “That’s a good lead, Maggie. Well done.” He set his hand on Yahn’s shoulder. “I’d better go inform the rangers. If we get Castilla, we can put this whole thing to an end.”

We all nodded in agreement, but as we watched Sheriff Leander ride off, Yahn half turned his face to me. “You sent him astray.”

“You know why I had to.”

He was quiet for a long moment, staring at the burning red-rock cliffs before us. “My mind trusts that you know what you are doing, but my heart fears for you.”

Closing my eyes, I grabbed his hand. His warm, strong touch was like a pillar of strength cutting through the chaos in my soul. “I can do this,” I said.

His voice was soft. “I know. I only wish I could come with you.”

“You have to help Adelaide. She needs treatment
now.
”

Yahn drew in a slow breath. “Promise me you will be careful.”

I hoped he couldn’t see the fear that shook my very core. “I promise. Now go. Hurry.”

Once he was mounted in his saddle, with Adelaide secure against his chest, he cast a final look at me. I nodded, pulling the bravest face I could manage under such conditions. Watching him ride away broke me into pieces, but I knew I’d done the right thing. Ahead of me, the high red-rock cliff stood like the castle of some ancient giant. Álvar was up there, so that was where I needed to be.

Drawing in a shaky breath, I walked into the fire.

Chapter Thirty-seven

The cliff top looked different as I climbed the final stretch of hill. Heat from the fires below rippled up in baking waves. Smoke covered the sun, creating a shadowy, red-tinted dimness and filling the air with its oppressive smell. When Álvar’s outline came into sight, standing against the edge of the cliff, I ducked down behind a boulder.

Heart pounding, I peered over the edge, searching for Ella. When I spotted her sitting against a clump of rocks with her arms tight around her knees, so scared and small and quiet, it took everything in me not to run to her.

As I moved closer, Ella spotted me. Her little face lit up, then dimmed. She was worried Álvar would hurt me. I wanted to tell her it would be okay, but instead, I motioned for her to stay where she was. I knew I had to play this smart. I had to play the only angle I had, if it still existed. Exhaling once, I stood and stepped forward.

Álvar snapped around at the rustle of my feet over the dry grasses on the cliff top. Right away, I noticed the strange fierceness in his eyes, the pale rage hanging on his countenance. He held the Ko Zhin staff in his hand, though in a way it looked as if
it
held
him
. Even now, I could feel its power reaching for me, its dark, alluring whisper in my ears. Even knowing what I knew, I still wanted to take the staff in
my
hand. I wanted to possess just a flicker of that strength.

“Ah, Maggie,” Álvar said, a cold smile crawling over his lips. “I knew you would come.”

It took every ounce of strength for me not to tremble under his gaze. “I’m here for my sister. Let her go.”

He gave a single, sharp laugh.

“She’s innocent in this,” I said, fighting with everything in me to keep calm. “I’m the one you want.”

His eyes flicked with darkness. “Indeed. You are.”

“Then let her go, and I’ll do as you say.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Maggie. You’ll do as I say, and that is the only thing that will keep me from burning your sister to ash.”

Ella whimpered. Though my own insides were shaking with fear, I dared to move closer to the edge of the cliff. “Álvar, please. Don’t do this.”

He slammed his staff to the ground. “Enough!” A snap of fire lashed out of the Ko Zhin. The dry, wind-blown patches of shrubbery ignited on the cliff top around us. I jumped back, but Álvar pointed the gleaming relic at me.

“Did you think you’d get something for nothing? Healing your sister. Your fine room. And all those pretty dresses—those were given with a price.”

“And what do you demand?” I asked, shaking inside, fearing the answer, now that I knew it had
indeed
been my talent he was after.

“You, Maggie. You shall be my greatest, most valuable relic.” He stepped closer, his eyes bright with the reflection of white flames. “I have realized what makes you so special. It is alchemy. You’ve somehow internalized the magic. It is part of you.”

“Listen to yourself, Álvar!” I cried. “I barely know what alchemy is. How could I possibly have performed it?”

His smile was wild, crazed. “Ah, but you have, whether you intended to do so or not. And I will find out how. I will study you, and you will teach me, and with our new powers, we will make everything right again. We shall wipe out the Apache people. We shall wipe out those who would seek to destroy everything I’ve built, everything my family has built. Let them all burn, and from their ashes, you and I will create a new, better world.”

“These aren’t your thoughts, Álvar. You have to see that. It’s the relic. It’s got ahold of you.”

“You understand
nothing
of this relic.”

“It only wants you to use me like it is using you. You have to fight it.”

“Silence!” he shouted, plumes of fire curling out of the Ko Zhin.

I knew my words fell as meaningless on his ears as the hot wind. As long as Álvar held the Ko Zhin, his rage would only grow. The evil would continue to push him further and further. I had to separate him from that staff.

My mind raced back to the prison cell this morning with Adelaide. I had subdued her by forcing her to see the good in herself. Maybe, just maybe, I could do the same with Álvar.

“I know you don’t want to kill all those people,” I began, switching tactics. “Innocent people. Even your own men are down there.”

“Necessary sacrifices.”

“I
know
you don’t mean that.”

“You know nothing!” he said. The flames shot from his staff like angry hands, reaching for my little sister. I held up an arm to block my face from the blaze. Álvar took the moment to yank me toward him.

“I won’t help you,” I shouted, struggling to pull from his grip.

“You
will.
Or I will burn you where you stand.”

“No!” Ella ran up to us, sobbing frantically. She threw her arms around my legs, trying to pull me away with all her strength. “Don’t kill her,” she sobbed. “Please don’t kill her, Mr. Castilla.”

I stared at Ella, my heart bursting. Suddenly, seeing she cared for me this much, I felt strong and even more determined to fight for our lives.

Her tenderness seemed to affect Álvar as well. The rage in his eyes wavered slightly—a tiny crack in the steel wall of blind anger. His grip loosened enough for me to free my arm. I shot Ella a glance, and she backed away. Only the smallest window had opened. But I had to try and take it.

With our faces close, I dared to touch Álvar’s hand. He looked there, then back at me, the conflict and confusion blossoming on his face.

“I understand why you feel trapped,” I said, my voice soft. “I’ve heard about the debts.”

“How dare you mention that…” But his voice trailed off into silence.

“I understand, Álvar. You know I do. I know what it feels like to be put in charge of something so important. I know what it feels like to fail.”

His eyes flashed, but I tightened my grip.

“You think this is the answer, but I promise you, it will only make things worse. There is another way. A way back, out of this. If you stop right now, you can save yourself from doing something that would destroy your soul forever.”

He was breathing hard, staring fiercely into my eyes.

“You don’t have to do this. Walk away, Álvar. I know it’s what you really want.”

“Don’t,” he said, his voice not angry but confused, seething with conflict.

Swallowing the hitch in my throat, I reached up and touched his face. He flinched but didn’t recoil from my hand. As I searched the rich brown of his eyes, a strange, startling thought caught me. He wasn’t evil. In fact, deep down, he wasn’t so different from me. I would do anything to protect Ella, just as he would do anything to protect his family’s honor. If I’d kept my tiny piece of Ko Zhin, wouldn’t I have resorted to equally dark ends?

“No matter what you’ve done,” I said, “I know you’re a good person.”

His voice was strained, stricken. “That part of me is lost.”

“Not lost. Taken. By the Ko Zhin.”

It was the Ko Zhin that had killed my family. All those towns. And now, it sought to kill this man’s soul—and mine with it. I could see the fierce red staff from the corner of my eye. A glittering darkness. An evil beauty. And something pulsed within me. I knew what I had to do.

“I will save you,” I whispered.

And with a surge of adrenaline, I lunged for the staff.

Unbearable flames flared as my arms wrapped around that relic. The momentum of grabbing it, and ripping it from Álvar’s distracted grip, sent me tumbling to the ground. I could hear Álvar’s cry, but it was muted in my head with the raging fury of the Ko Zhin.

Evil, thick and dark as tar, burst through me. This Ko Zhin bore a hundred times the power of that little sliver I’d gotten from the miner. And with my gift, with the Legacy, that power blazed tenfold stronger. It pulsated in my mind with deafening fury.

When I rose to my feet and saw Álvar standing there, stunned, all I wanted to do was burn him forever. He deserved to pay for everything he’d done. He was weak, and he’d let the magic control him like a puppet. He let it kill my parents, my brother. He let it burn my home. A man like him deserved to be nothing more than ash on the wind.

I would control this power. As the white-hot staff burned in my grip, I could see it all like a vision. A vision of my right and destiny.

I would wipe him out, then obliterate every one of his evil underlings. With my fire, I would bring to justice every man who had murdered an innocent. They would all pay. Their ashes would be recompense for the ashes they created. And I would build the world anew. A just world. A right world. A world I would rule with my benevolent power.

A scream pierced the roaring fire of my mind. Looking to the side, I saw the smallest flash of a little face. Surrounded by the tongues of flames that spread over the cliff top—flames I was creating—a pair of brown eyes, so like Papa’s, pleaded with me silently.

Ella.

It was as if a beam of light cut into the darkness inside me. I had to stop this.

The Ko Zhin was taking over my mind. It was filling me with evil, with hatred. If I didn’t stop, I would burn the entire cliff top, with Ella and Álvar as well as myself.

But justice had to be done. Think of all the innocent people who died by his hand. He had to be punished. He had to pay. I would make him pay. Fire for fire. Death for death.

NO!
With a cry, I fell to my knees. It was destroying me, every second that I could feel the Ko Zhin tighten its hold on my heart. Trembling, I saw the drop-off of the cliff, falling to the abyss below. I only needed the strength.

The Ko Zhin seemed to sense my resistance, and it blazed harder in my mind, a quaking rage so intense, I could only see flames in my eyes.

Think about Ella,
I screamed to myself. I called up her face in my mind. Then Mama and Papa and Jeb. Then Adelaide. Landon. Yahn. For them, I had to end this. I had to do it.

Over the pain and fire and blackness of despair, my own roar rang in my ears. I had the power to overcome this. I had Apache blood in me. A Legacy stronger than this evil.

A surge of strength, like hot white light, tore through me. I lifted the Ko Zhin staff over my head. It burned my hands, melted onto them like liquid metal.

With a cry, I flung the staff over the edge of the cliff. But as I did, a final surge of will from the Ko Zhin pulled through me. I lost my balance and slipped forward, my body hurtling into the smoky, burning abyss below.